Guess Who's at Our House Today?

Well, what did you think would happen when Luke got the boots he’s been hoping for for months?!?

(Now he wants a green pointed hat.)

A Happy Christmas for All!

This year we really got to spread out our family Christmas celebrating.  Our first gathering was at Nannie and Pop-Pop’s (Donna and Doug’s) on Thursday, December 19^th.

It was a lovely day with reading …


playing …


and being together!


Also, there was eating and gift opening, but I didn’t manage to keep the camera in my hand during those two events!  Here are some pictures of the kids enjoying their items the next day.


Playing with the sports set Uncle Doug, Aunt Sarah and Rebecca gave the boys.  (Notice that Emma is still wearing her dress … because it matches the necklace and hairdo that were a part of a GIANT box of accessories from Uncle Doug, Aunt Sarah and Rebecca!)


Sharpening the Christmas pencils from Uncle Ryan, Auntie Donna, David and Ellie.  (Not pictured: The fantastic hand-decorated bags Auntie Donna made for the kids to carry their Bibles and notebooks to church in, the yo-yo’s she got them and the bibs she picked out for Henry and Hazel.)


Ruth arranging the reusable stickers in a room in the sticker book Nannie, Pop-Pop and Uncle Joshua gave her for Christmas.


Emma already hard at work on her Rainbow Loom making rubber band bracelets for everyone!


Luke and Henry introducing Luke’s new nutcracker to the family nutcracker.


Ruth and Robyn playing marbles on the new marble carpet from Grannie and Granddaddy.  Also, Robyn is wearing (albeit upside-down) the blue-hair headband which was one of the variety of interesting items that Ben snagged for the kids.

We celebrated Christmas Eve with Matt’s side of the family.  I forgot my camera, so I don’t have any pictures of the event itself, but here are some pictures of the kids enjoying their gifts afterwards.


Wearing the pajamas and boots from Nana and Papa.


Coloring the large cardboard Charlie Brown house from Uncle Lyle and Auntie Michelle.


And reading in the large cardboard Charlie Brown house from Uncle Lyle and Auntie Michelle!

On Christmas morning, we opened stockings and exchanged gifts amongst ourselves.








(Somehow I missed capturing Emma’s stocking-opening!  Ooops.  Sorry, Emma!)

Nannie and Pop-Pop had taken the kids to the Dollar Store to pick out gifts for each other and for us, so each kid got a pillowcase and a chance to play “Santa”!





After the gifts were opened and the debris cleared away (mostly) Nana and Papa came over for brunch.  All in all, it was a lovely season!  I’ll leave you with a few of my favorite pictures.







(As usual, click on any image to see the whole album.)

Annual Family Photo

Well, it’s that time of year again.  The time of year when we are supposed to show everyone how much the kids have changed … and how much we haven’t?  But all in all, it’s a good thing to get the family together for a photo to mark where everyone is in this December of 2013.  Here’s the “official one”:


From the Left: Robyn (4), Emma (7), Hazel (10 mo.), Lynna, Henry (2), Matt, Luke (8) and Ruth (5)

And here are some of my other favorites:


(Matt was trying to get the lighting and camera settings right, so we were not exactly posed and mostly not looking at the camera … which resulted in a shot that, for most of us, looks much more like our “regular” selves!)


Luke and the Ladies (well, some of them)

And finally …


The One Who was Responsible for Ending the Photo Session

I didn’t notice until I was cropping the pictures that she still has that faint little crusty white patch on her head from where yogurt-mouth Henry gave her a kiss!  Oh well.  History has been truly and accurately documented!

Favorite Quotes

Luke commented, “Superman has overwear.”

Robyn was sent upstairs to put away things in her room.  She ran back down to the kitchen, put her fists on her hips and announced proudly, “The room is all done!  I have done good progress!”

Henry was standing up on the bench and I asked him to sit down so that he wouldn’t fall off.  He sat down and said, “Oh!  Yea!  Waaaaaa! PSH Ahhhhh!  Ow!”  (I can’t do it justice phonetically.  He was basically making the sound-effects for falling, crashing and crying! J)

Misheard Lyrics

“I love rock n’ roll … put another dime in the juice box, baby!”

Name that Picture

Robyn was working on an activity in her “school work” that included indentifying the beginning sound in words that begin with S, T or P.  These letters were written across the top of the page.  The rest of the page was full of pictures.  The directions instructed her to draw a line from each picture to the beginning letter sound.  She brought the book to me and pointed to a picture of the back end of a horse with an arrow pointing to the tail and said, “I don’t think I can do this one because it’s a buh-buh-bum!”

The Pooh Family

(I just found this old e-mail in my “drafts” folder.  I have no idea when I recorded it … but it’s still funny!)

The kids got a big container of Winnie the Pooh animal crackers from Nana and Papa.  The following conversation with Foofie ensued:

Foofie: Mama, guess which one I like best in the Pooh family.
Mama: Hmmm ….
Foofie: Guess Eore!
Mama: OK, Eore!
Foofie: Nope!  Actually, it’s the one in the dream!
Mama: The Hefalump?
Foofie: Right!  Now guess which animal I like best in the Pooh family?
Mama: Hmm … Piglet?
Foofie: Nope.  Pooh!
Mama: Oh, why do you like Pooh the best?
Foofie (with a devilish grin): Well, because his name is “Pooh!” you know, so everyone is always saying to him, “You’re Pooh!”

What is funnier than ...

… teaching your 8-year-old how to play “52 Card Pick-up”?  When he and all of his sisters (who actually watched what happened) want to play it again!  They each wanted their own turn.  The joke was definitely on me!

Bo-Bo Talk

Robyn’s speech is coming along nicely and it’s more and more common for “outsiders” to be able to understand what she’s saying.  However, I’m not quite ready for her to completely abandon all of her peculiar little pronunciations, so here’s one for the (family) history books.

Robyn (while putting away silverware): We need a lot of ‘poons because, ya, know, we need to ‘koop up a lot of ‘hoom [food].

If you give a kid a camera ...

They will take pictures of their toys …





They will take pictures of their siblings …



And some of the pictures will be more encouraging …







… than others!



(photography by Emma)

Huzzah!

We actually did make it to Williamsburg today!  After much back and forth and rescheduling and wondering if Matt would be able to have time off of work, we were able to find a day that worked and purchase the tickets in advance.  And then yesterday, several of the children were sick!  Thankfully when they woke up this morning, everyone was mostly clear, so we loaded up the van, packed a few extra hankies and took off!

Well, perhaps that’s an over-simplification.  We actually didn’t make it out the door until after 10, and I spent the whole trip down frantically hemming the girls’ dresses because, honestly, I didn’t think we’d be able to go today!  But we had a lovely time and Daddy got some lovely pictures of my sweet babies … some of whom are really growing into such fine-looking ladies and gentlemen!

Thanks to a generous birthday gift from Nana and Papa, the oldest three were able to purchase costumes to wear – something they’ve asked to do before.  Here are a few of the pictures.  Click on any image to see the rest of the album.  (Since it was in the 90’s, the girls quickly got too hot and changed to their regular dresses, but Luke just peeled off his jacket and proceeded – he said he felt more comfortable dressed like a craftsman than a wealthy gentleman.)





















What was their favorite part of the trip?  The visit to Wythe’s Candy Store in Market Square, of course!

Name Telephone

“Ruth” + Emma’s toddler pronunciation = “Foof”

“Foof” + our family’s nickname tendencies = “Foofie” (also “Fluffy”)

“Foofie” + Henry’s toddler pronunciation = “Hoo-Foo”

A good summer day ...

This morning we had a family birthday party for Luke (birthday in June), Henry (birthday in June), Emma (birthday in August) and Ruth (birthday in February but not officially celebrated then due to the arrival of Hazel).  The kids picked a “Colonial” theme for their party, so we enjoyed some cornbread, fried hominy, homemade bread, spiced apples and other simple Virginia treats.  The children have spent the remainder of their day …
playing with a baby doll …
swimming in their new kiddie pool …
looking for bugs with the magnifying glasses and insect container …
brushing unicorn hair …
running under a parachute …
using their new binoculars …
and currently they are trying to beat their current pogo stick-ing records out in the back yard in the growing darkness.

Should I call them in?  Maybe in a little while.  For right now, I’m going to let them enjoy just a little more summer!

The Sunshine Part

I don’t know how this happened, but somehow, one of my all-time favorite family videos never made it onto the blog.  Here it is … just over three years late, but still just as fun!


[Click the image to view the video.]

A Matter of Life and Death

I discovered that Robyn had unplugged the lamp in her bedroom and messed with the socket cover.

Mama: Robyn, you must never play with the electrical cords.  You could get hurt very badly or even die.  You should ask Emma about that.  One time when Emma was little she messed with an electrical cord and blue sparks shot out at her.
Robyn: Did Emma die?

A Post for You, Mrs. White

Oh, Henry, how do I love thee?  Let me count the rolls.  He’s still such a chunker.  But now he’s a running, talking, laundry-washing chunker.  And yes, Jeremy Brown, his official nickname is “Fatty”.  Here are some recent pictures and videos of my sweet man.  (Warning: partial nudity.  OK, not really; it’s just a toddler in a diaper.)


[Two videos of Henry using a funnel as a megaphone.  Click on the image to view the videos.  My favorite part of the second video is all of the big-sister-giggling in the background!]


[Henry on the phone.  OK, so if you click the image, you’ll be taken to two almost identical videos.  Sorry, I couldn’t choose.]


[Henry helping out with laundry.  I love that he throws every single item in one at a time and gleefully announces the name of the owner of each item!  Click on the image to see more.]

Hazel then and now ...

So a long time ago (OK, last February) I had a sweet baby girl.  She was born with all of this precious, fuzzy red hair, like this:


[If you click on the image above, you can see lots more sweet little newborn pictures of Hazel that I never got around to uploding or sharing.  I picked this one for this post because she kind of reminds me of Martin Freeman … or at least what I imagine his baby pictures might look like.]

Then she lost all of her fuzzy red hair and has been mostly bald since then.  But she’s got a lot of charm to make up for what she lacks in hair.



She’s also just broken a family record.  Before now, Luke was our earliest-able baby, getting up onto his hands and knees at 5 months.  Hazel just did him one better.  She can get up on her hands and knees.  But she also enjoys planking.  I’m not kidding.  She can hold her body straight for several seconds with only palms and toes on the floor.  (She’s transitioning between the two positions in the photo below.)  OK, now I really need to start working out.